The modern communications era has brought about a tremendous expansion of wireline and wireless networks. Computer networks, television networks, and telephony networks are experiencing an unprecedented technological expansion, fueled by consumer demand. Wireless and mobile networking technologies have addressed related consumer demands, while providing more flexibility and immediacy of information transfer.
Current and future networking technologies continue to facilitate ease of information transfer and convenience to users. One area in which there is a demand to increase ease of information transfer relates to the delivery of services to a user of a mobile terminal. The services may be in the form of a particular media or communication application desired by the user, such as a music player, a game player, an electronic book, short messages, email, content sharing, etc. The services may also be in the form of interactive applications in which the user may respond to a network device in order to perform a task or achieve a goal. The services may be provided from a network server or other network device, or even from the mobile terminal such as, for example, a mobile telephone, a mobile television, a mobile gaming system, etc.
In some situations, mobile terminals may be enabled to interface with other devices in a specific area in order to utilize services associated with the other devices. For example, the mobile terminal may be enabled to interface with a nearby printer to request printing of a document using resources of the nearby printer. Alternatively or additionally, the mobile terminal may be enabled to interface with a nearby stereo system to play audio using the amplifier and speakers of the stereo system. As such, mobile terminals may be enabled to share resources with other devices in their local environment.
Some interesting use cases have developed around the capabilities of various devices to share resources. For example, augmented reality has been incorporated into such scenarios. Augmented reality is a term used to describe the merging of real world imagery associated with a real world environment with computer generated imagery. A very common example of augmented reality is experienced frequently when watching a sporting event on television with streaming or otherwise intermittently presented score or other status information being overlaid onto the video of the sporting action itself.
When incorporating augmented reality into the remote resource utilization scenario described above, a user may be enabled to capture an image of a space with various devices being visible in the image. The image may be a live image or a captured real world image. The devices in the image may be recognized as being associated with corresponding services that may be provided by the respective devices. A display of the image including the devices with information descriptive of the services associated with each respective device and a control function for accessing such services may then be provided. The description of the services or the control function may be computer generated imagery that “augments” the image of the actual space, thereby providing an augmented reality view. The augmented reality view may then be displayed on the mobile terminal to enable the user to access the respective devices via the control function that augments the real world view.
Although such an augmented reality view may be interesting and useful for users, such a view may only be useful with respect to granting access to limited functionalities associated with visible devices. Thus, users may be required to shift to another user interface related view in order to access other desirable functionalities. The time and effort associated with shifting views may reduce user enjoyment in some cases. For example, accessing other applications or interface options may require exiting or suppressing the augmented reality view. Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide an alternative mechanism by which to control a device display.